War, Ways and Means

By

Vincent J. Cannato

Updated Nov. 27, 2001 12:01 a.m. ET

Wars often act as catalysts for expanding the reach of the federal government, and the size of its budget. We are now in a war on terrorism, and polls record high levels of trust in Washington. The implication is obvious -- open the spending floodgates -- and liberal activists, long stymied by a general fear of deficits, have not missed it.

This turn of events has added a special pointedness to H.W. Brands's "The Strange Death of American Liberalism" (Yale, 200 pages, $22.50), a lively, quirky, yet ultimately...